Leadership – Size Doesn’t Matter

“In the end, it’s not the size of the project that determines its acceptance, support, and success. It’s the size of the leader.”

John Maxwell – The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

Have you ever had the opportunity to work with an individual on a perceivably small project where, upon completion you felt good about being part of the project? You left feeling that the outcome was what was expected, you felt part of the team (regardless of your level of contribution), you looked forward to another opportunity to work on the next venture the group takes on and you learned something. Opportunities such as this are amazing and yet few and far between. Why?

Time and energy can be taken to look at the project, the amount of work required and the outcomes, teams can be evaluated, and processes can be assessed and yet the once common denominator to any great project or team starts at the same point…. the leader.

The leader may be the leader of other leaders who are responsible for a large project or organization; or it may be an individual who is leading alongside the team on a small or short-term project, the size of the project does not matter.

Another way to look at it is, have you ever said I wish _______ (you fill in the blank) was leading this project, or I wish ______ was my boss? If you look closely at your person ______ what is it that made you wish that? With close examination you would probably come up with similar answers that anyone asked the same question would come up with, ______ is trustworthy, has integrity, looks after me and the team, is competent (or knows when to engage other competent people). The list of characteristics may be long and yet they all are part of determining the size of the leader, and for clarification, the size of the leader is not based on credentials, or hierarchy. It is not based on seniority or experience. What determines the size of a leader is their ability to gain the hearts, and minds, to engage growth, and to support learning while empowering and providing opportunity for those they are leading.

I recently was working with a team on a major project costing over a billion dollars. The number of people with various positions of responsibility and authority were many and yet I had to ask who the ‘big’ boss was. This surprised me for two reasons, one no one stood out as the big boss and yet the work being done was amazing and the psychological safety and empowerment to complete work was evident on all levels. When the ‘big’ boss was identified to me, they were an individual I spoke with regularly, who asked questions of me, who cared on the personal level and respected what I was there to do.

I have had the privilege to work with good leaders on small and large projects and the one thing I know for sure it is not the size of the project that makes the leader, it is the size of the leader that makes the project.     

Sterling Martin